I heard the sounds of locomotion and a whistle’s plaintive cry of weakness, but the wheels were turning. Steel on steel the sole reply.
The sounds of force accelerating rhythmically as drums would play recalled a light and tender time, though made of steel the permanent way,
when near a depot long abandoned, waiting for a passing train, a child would sit alone for hours just to hear the steel refrain.
I heard the sounds of locomotion carrying a longing man with freight and cargo to a place that rails of steel alone could span.
“I looked out of the train, And I suddenly saw the empty station As we hurtled through, with a hollow roar . . . ‘Harviston End’ . . . It was dark and dead”
A quiet hymn to all that we’ve lost. It’s all here, the sights, sounds and smells of a country station about…
A peculiar piece of footage from England shows a puzzling winged anomaly, which some have likened to the legendary Tooth Fairy, fluttering outside a family’s home. The strange scene was reportedly captured last Sunday evening by the doorbell camera of Alicia Stoddart’s residence in the town of Hemel Hempstead. While visiting her parent’s house in the community of Clacton that night, the security system alerted her to something strange happening back at her home. When she checked her phone to see what had triggered the camera, Stoddart was stunned to see what appears to be a small white figure bearing a sizeable set of wings.
“My first thought was ‘oh my God, it’s a fairy,'” she recalled, “we were racking our brains trying to think of what it could be and Googling possible culprits.” However, Stoddart says, they were unable to find what sort of prosaic creature could account for the sprite-like anomaly. “None were matching the outline and size of the image,” she explained, leaving her family “convinced it’s the Tooth Fairy.” As one might imagine, Stoddart’s three children were particularly enchanted by the video, specifically her son, who is “a believer of all things magical” and just so happens to sporting a loose tooth at the moment.
No doubt skeptical observers will suggest that the ‘fairy’ in the footage is simply an insect, perhaps a moth, that flew past the camera and its supernatural appearance is simply a trick of light and shadow. While that is very likely the case, Stoddart mused “we all need a bit of magic and belief in our lives,” especially during these tumultuous times. Can you identify the curious visitor who stopped by the family’s house last Sunday evening?
Bubble wrap is a pliable transparent plastic material used for packing fragile items. Regularly spaced, protruding air-filled hemispheres (bubbles) provide cushioning for fragile items.
“Bubble wrap” is a generic trademark owned by Sealed Air Corporation based in North Carolina. In 1957 two inventors named Alfred Fielding and Marc Chavannes were attempting to create a three-dimensional plastic wallpaper. Although the idea was a failure, they found that what they made could be used as packing material. Sealed Air was co-founded by Fielding in 1960.
People are calling Trump’s McDonald’s and Wendy’s meal for the Clemson Tigers racist and classist.
When President Trump welcomed the Clemson Tigers, national college football champions, to the White House on January 14, he served them burgers, pizza, and fries from some of America’s most storied institutions: fast-food chains.
The resulting buffet, which included hamburgers, fries, salads, and fish sandwiches from McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s alongside Domino’s pizza, was a strange choice, particularly for an event held in the 140-seat State Dining Room, which traditionally hosts formal dinners for ambassadors and heads of state.
Though he told reporters that he had personally bought “300 hamburgers,” in a tweet the next morning that number had skyrocketed to “1000 hamberders [sic].” (Photos and videos of the scene show that the lower number is likely the more correct one.)
Great being with the National Champion Clemson Tigers last night at the White House. Because of the Shutdown I served them massive amounts of Fast Food (I paid), over 1000 hamberders etc. Within one hour, it was all gone. Great guys and big eaters!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 15, 2019
At least some of the guests, for their part, seem to have appreciated the dinner choice; Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence told TMZ that “It was awesome.” Trump himself has also long professed to be a fan of fast food, possibly out of a fear of being poisoned, so it’s likely that he enjoyed the meal just fine.
In a wild story out of China, more than 80 ostriches escaped their farm and, much to the amazement of motorists, wound up flooding the streets of a city. The strange incident reportedly occurred early Saturday morning in the community of Chongzuo. Thanks to an unlocked gate on the property where they live, the bevy of birds managed to make a break for it and enjoy a brief taste of freedom.Drivers cruising the streets of the city could not believe their eyes as the ostriches dashed down the streets in droves and overwhelmed nearby sidewalks.
Perhaps thinking that no one would believe their story, several witnesses filmed the jaw-dropping scene with their cellphone and their videos went viral on social media. Fortunately no one was injured during the unexpected stampede and the owner of the farm was able to wrangle nearly all of their escaped ostriches. That said, since not every bird was captured, there may be more than a few of the rogue birds still hiding out somewhere in Chongzuo.
Frame is a TV channel that is commercial free and shows great scenery. The scenery images and videos are from all over the world. An example is a drone over Venice, outstanding visuals. Very satisfying channel to watch. However, as December arrives, the channel puts on a bloody unending fireplace. They play this fireplace continously for 7 straight weeks.
I know the holiday season goes to some peoples heads, but lets take a deep breath and get real. Who the hell wants to look at the same fireplace 24/7 for 7 weeks?
In the battle of deer vs. decoration deer, we have a winner. In British Columbia, the Chmelyk family has set out their “Rudolph the Red Nosed White-Tail” decoration for the last five holiday seasons. But “every year a buck in the area attacks him or hits and knocks him over and breaks him,” Arlene Chmelyk told CBC News. This year the battle royale was caught on video.
PRESS RELEASE — VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland announced today that the country’s first operational 5-qubit quantum computer is up and running. Together with the quantum computing hardware startup IQM, VTT has taken its first steps to enable the building of quantum computers that will be both scalable and easier to manufacture, allowing more companies to begin their quantum computing journey.
The incredible computing performance of quantum computers makes it possible to solve problems that are beyond the capabilities of modern high-performance computers. In the future, quantum computers will be used, for instance, to accurately model viruses and drugs or used to design materials that are challenging to design with today’s technology.
“The development of quantum computing will affect all industries. Our experience in building the quantum computer, and our know-how in developing quantum algorithms will help us develop quantum foresight to, for example, identify future trends and support companies in understanding how and when their business will be affected,” says Pekka Pursula, Research Manager at VTT. “The best way to do this will be for companies to work together with VTT, and actually use our new hardware.”
The now-unveiled 5-qubit quantum computer is located at Micronova, part of OtaNano, the national research infrastructure for micro and nanotechnology, jointly run by VTT and Aalto University.
The big challenge in quantum computing is scalability. Quantum physicists and engineers around the world are trying to figure out how to scale quantum computing hardware to include hundreds and thousands of qubits, scale up the production in an economically efficient way, and scale algorithms and use of quantum computing in real-life applications.
VTT has 30 years of expertise in quantum technology research and excellent facilities to work on hardware scaling. The scaling of the use requires VTT to work hand-in-hand with the companies to develop algorithms for specific applications.
“Today’s announcement marks an important milestone for IQM and for the European quantum initiatives. With the completion of this phase, IQM will become one of the very few quantum companies that can deliver an on-premises quantum computer to a customer. I congratulate our partners, VTT and also the entire IQM team who has managed to deliver this ambitious milestone during the pandemic. This is just the first phase of the delivery and because of our ability to upgrade the systems, we are looking forward to working with VTT on delivering the 20-qubit and the 50-qubit systems,” says Jan Goetz, CEO and Co-founder of IQM.
The 5-qubit quantum computer is part of a larger initiative. VTT and IQM aim to build together a much more powerful 50-qubit quantum computer by 2024 and further develop Finland’s long-lasting technology and expertise in quantum computing.
The country already has an active research community called InstituteQ – of which VTT, Aalto University, and Helsinki University are the founding members – which is focused on developing world-class quantum expertise. BusinessQ network supports companies in incorporating quantum technology into their business, enabling growth for the Finnish society.
Quantum computing is a type of computation that harnesses the collective properties of quantum states, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement, to perform calculations. The devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though current quantum computers are too small to outperform usual (classical) computers for practical applications, they are believed to be capable of solving certain computational problems, such as integer factorization (which underlies RSA encryption), substantially faster than classical computers. The study of quantum computing is a subfield of quantum information science.
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